Wednesday, February 04, 2009

Ethics Reform Meets Shannon's Revenge

There is a quaint charm to our New Mexico State Senate. It's the Jurassic Park of New Mexico politics -- dinosaurs in suits. The place still runs under Manny's Rules - just without Manny. It's where good bills go to die horrible deaths - like Domestic Partnership. And the bills it spawns just rise straight out of some primordial political muck.

Senate
Majority Leader Michael Sanchez, D-Belen, just had an impromptu,
informal press conference here in the media room of the Capitol. He
spoke a lot about ethics bills -- including establishing an ethics
commission, campaign contribution limits, and bills dealing with
contributions by state contractors -- into one big ethics bill…
Sanchez also said he's heard rumblings of a possible amendment or
separate bill that would require non-profit groups -- such as the
Center for Civic Policy -- to disclose its contributors. We could dub
that the Shannon's Revenge Act.

The Shannon Revenge Act… it's the Senate dinosaurs cynical response to the public's revulsion against corruption and the pent-up demand for ethics reform. Let's just call it the Senate's monument to mendacity.

The sublimity of this evil takes the breath away. Nothing would be
more perfect than Terrell's naming this scheme after former Senator
Shannon Robinson. Shannon was Manny Aragon's chief lieutenant in the
days when kickback was king. It was non-profits, you recall, that
turned a spotlight on Robinson's voting record after the last
legislative session. And the dinos are determined that no good deed
shall go unpunished.

What a devilishly simple plan. After years of good ethics bills getting killed one after another by the Senate, this is the year that ethics reform really has a chance. So what Sanchez proposes to do is just wrap 'em all into one big dog bill, then insert a poison pill amendment to punish pesky non-profits. Sticking it to those community organizations who've been blowing the whistle on the Senate's own pay-to-play system of campaign contributions in exchange for special interest legislation.

And just coincidentally, Heath Haussamen reports that the Senate Rules (Michael's Tools) Committee just got around to holding its first meeting on Monday after taking the first TWO WEEKS of the session off. Busy, busy, busy.